OTTAWA — Opposition MPs criticized the federal government Friday for distributing a controversial anti-malaria drug to military personnel while using outdated warnings to users.

Their statements followed a U.S. expert’s assertion to The Vancouver Sun that Canada is failing to inform soldiers they could suffer from serious and permanent health issues by using mefloquine.

New Democratic Party defence critic Randall Garrison, the MP for Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke, said Canada is handling the drug in a “disturbing” manner.

“We are calling the minister of defence to act immediately and make sure our forces have the most updated information on side effects and that our veterans who are affected have the care they deserve.”

The Conservatives went further, saying the federal government should ban mefloquine. Tory defence critic James Bezan said Canada should take notice of the British defence ministry’s apology earlier this month for the way it administered the drug to soldiers.

The apology “highlights the drug’s side effects, such as nightmares, acute anxiety, depression, restlessness and suicidal thoughts,” Bezan told The Sun.

The Saskatchewan MP said the military already has safer anti-malaria medications and no longer needs to distribute a drug that has been blamed for a number of violent acts, including the torture and murder of a Somali teenager by Canadian soldiers in 1993.

The availability of better options means just five per cent of Canadian personnel sent to areas where there is a risk of malaria now use mefloquine, according to department of national defence statistics.

“The mental stresses of being deployed are challenging enough without adding the unnecessary psychological side effects caused by the medication,” Bezan said. “With all of the efforts that are being made to improve the mental health of our troops, it’s unbelievable that the decision to stop prescribing mefloquine hasn’t been done.”

A prominent U.S. medical expert, who has played a key role in reducing the use of mefloquine in the American military, prepared a comparative analysis for The Sun to illustrate how Canada, the U.S., Australia and the United Kingdom handle the drug.

The analysis from Dr. Remington Nevin, a former U.S. army major who specializes on antimalarial drug toxicity at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, shows that Canada fares poorly, especially in comparison to the U.S.

Canadian users, according to a Health Canada-approved product information sheet from a Toronto-based generic manufacturer, are told they could suffer from acute anxiety, depression, restlessness, confusion, and vertigo for several weeks or even months. The document is dated May, 2010.

But a wallet-sized warning card distributed to users in the U.S., which accompanies a February, 2015 product information document provided to pharmacists by the manufacture, warns of “serious mental and nervous system side effects that can last years or “may become permanent in some people.”

The Canadian warning material also downplays the risk of suicide, saying that “rare” cases of suicidal thoughts and suicidal actions “have been reported, though no relationship to drug administration has been confirmed.”

The American warning doesn’t use the word “rare,” and the wording is more neutral.

“Some people who take mefloquine think about suicide (while) some people who were taking mefloquine committed suicide. It is not known if mefloquine was responsible for those suicides,” it states.

A statement from the office of Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, the MP for Vancouver South, defended the military’s use of the drug.

Spokeswoman Jordan Owens said the drug is “recommended by the Public Health Agency of Canada and by most public health and travel medicine authorities around the world.”

While only five per cent of military personnel use the drug, “mefloquine is the preferred option for some individuals, and we will continue to allow them to make this evidence-based choice.”

Health Canada was asked Friday to explain why the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires tougher warnings than Health Canada, but didn’t respond.

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Opposition MPs demand government act on dangerous anti-malaria drug

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